Chapter 499: An Empty Sword Art!
"The sun and moon cycle without end, the four seasons alternate in turn, and heaven and earth shift eternally. Beneath an ancient peach tree, I observed the changing seasons and meditated for ten full years. Only then did I finally create this sword technique and name it the Four Seasons Sword Technique."
An elegant middle-aged man who resembled a refined scholar stood upon the Heaven-Reaching Pillar and performed a set of sword techniques with a calm and leisurely expression.
His first strike made one feel as though they were standing within a gentle spring breeze. The softness of that breeze seemed capable of weakening the bones and dissolving one’s will, making it difficult to summon even the slightest thought of resistance.
Then, his sword stance changed, and the Sword Qi became scorching hot like the blazing summer sun. It made one feel restless, irritable, and drenched in sweat, as though their entire body had been thrown into a furnace.
After that, the sword stance changed again.
A cold killing intent instantly filled the surroundings, bleak and desolate like an autumn wind sweeping over a lonely plain. It made one’s heart sink with sorrow. Finally, the last strike became incomparably cold, vast, and endless, like a frigid winter wind that could freeze all vitality beneath heaven.
One sword technique contained four styles.
Each style possessed a completely different character, yet they were perfectly fused together. They flowed like the cycle of reincarnation, harmonious and natural, without the slightest sense of disorder.
"This martial skill is quite interesting."
Li Yun nodded.
Compared to the previous Blood Slaughter Sword Path, this Four Seasons Sword Technique was far superior in both concept and power.
However, Li Yun was not in a hurry to choose it.
After all, on Chaos Heaven Island, everyone could only obtain one inheritance. He needed to carefully weigh his options before making a final decision.
The third Heaven-Reaching Pillar was more ordinary. It only contained a low-grade Earth Rank martial skill, so it failed to arouse Li Yun’s interest. He merely glanced at it before looking away.
The fourth Heaven-Reaching Pillar recorded a martial skill called the Mad Demon Life-Burning Art. It was a life-saving type of skill.
At a critical moment of life and death, using this skill could exchange ten years of lifespan for a temporary tenfold increase in power.
The price was heavy, but it was not completely unbearable.
As a cultivator’s strength increased, their lifespan would also grow longer. For instance, experts in the Earthly Core Realm could live for three hundred years, while those in the Heavenly Core Realm could live for five hundred years.
As for the later Spirit Manifestation Realm, Dao Resonance Realm, and Life and Death Realm, their lifespans would naturally become even longer. Unfortunately, this skill was only useful for Earthly Core Realm cultivators. By the time one reached the Heavenly Core Realm, its effect would become negligible.
Even so, this martial skill still had some value.
Li Yun silently remembered it, then continued looking at the remaining Heaven-Reaching Pillars.
The inheritances inside the fifth and sixth Heaven-Reaching Pillars were rather ordinary. The seventh Heaven-Reaching Pillar recorded a mid-grade Earth Rank martial skill, but it could not compare to the Four Seasons Sword Technique or the Mad Demon Life-Burning Art, so Li Yun eliminated it immediately.
The eighth Heaven-Reaching Pillar contained a rather interesting martial skill called the Spirit-Absorbing Profound Art. It could rapidly absorb the spiritual qi of heaven and earth to heal oneself. No matter how severe one’s injuries were, this art could restore them within a short period.
However, just like the Mad Demon Life-Burning Art, it was also limited to Earthly Core Realm cultivators, which greatly reduced its value.
Finally, Li Yun turned his gaze toward the last remaining Heaven-Reaching Pillar.
"Hm?"
With only one glance, Li Yun’s eyes instantly lit up.
On the ninth Heaven-Reaching Pillar, the figure of a silver-haired elder gradually materialized. In front of him stood hundreds of demonic beasts. Each one towered hundreds or even thousands of zhang high, and the auras emanating from them were terrifying to the extreme. Even the weakest among them far surpassed the Heavenly Core Realm.
"I began practicing the sword at the age of seven. After three years, I achieved minor accomplishment. After ten years, I reached major accomplishment. For one hundred years, I roamed the world with my sword. Then, over the next three hundred years, I condensed the essence of my lifelong sword cultivation into a peculiar sword art."
The silver-haired elder’s voice was plain, but it carried an incomparable pride.
"This sword art, on its own, is nothing more than an empty shell. Its movements are ordinary, its power negligible, and it cannot even compare to the most basic Human Rank martial skills. However, once it is paired with a unique Sword Intent, it will reveal a terrifying side that defies imagination."
The pride in the silver-haired elder’s tone was not arrogance. It was the natural bearing of a true expert, the kind of aura that could only be cultivated after standing at the peak for many years.
As his words fell, the silver-haired elder slowly drew his sword.
His movement was neither fast nor slow. It was plain, almost crude, as though it lacked any refinement. The trajectory of the sword was simple and direct, without any profound mystery.
At first glance, it seemed utterly useless.
Even an ordinary cultivator might scoff at such a strike, believing it to be nothing more than a flawed and incomplete technique.
However, in the next instant, a terrifying Sword Intent erupted from the elder’s body.
That Sword Intent was vast and boundless, like the heavens themselves descending. It fused seamlessly into the seemingly ordinary sword strike, transforming it completely.
Whoosh!
Sword Qi surged.
The previously plain and unimpressive strike suddenly became incomparably terrifying. It was as though the sword had gained a soul, as though it carried the will of heaven and earth.
With a single swing, the hundreds of towering demonic beasts were instantly obliterated. Their massive bodies disintegrated into nothingness before they could even react.
The scene shifted once more.
A demonic beast thousands of zhang tall appeared before the elder. Its body was formed from densely packed rocks, standing like a living mountain. The aura it emitted was so overwhelming that it seemed capable of crushing a Heavenly Core Realm expert into dust.
The silver-haired elder raised his sword again.
This time, his movement was even more unremarkable than before. It was slow, clumsy, and devoid of any technique. It looked like the strike of a beginner who had just picked up a sword.
Yet as the rock giant faced this strike, boundless terror filled its eyes.
It trembled violently, as though it sensed something far more dreadful than death itself. It wanted to flee, but its body was completely locked in place by an invisible force.
That force was not the sword itself.
It was the Sword Intent.
Swoosh!
The sword descended.
The moment the blade touched the rock giant, the terrifying Sword Intent erupted completely. The seemingly useless strike transformed into an unstoppable force, instantly annihilating the massive demonic beast.
"This..."
Witnessing this scene, Li Yun could not help revealing an expression of utter shock.
Astonishing.
The silver-haired elder’s sword art was truly too astonishing.
On its own, it was nothing more than an empty shell, a technique so ordinary that it bordered on useless. Yet once it was combined with a powerful Sword Intent, it became something entirely different—something terrifying beyond comprehension.
This sword art seemed to open a brand-new door before Li Yun, revealing a completely different direction within the Sword Dao.